The remarkable culture of this land teaches

us that Life itself is a grand occasion to

celebrate! Sanatana Dharma presents us with
Sanathana the most stupendous perspective that no
matter how challenging 'the life' proves to be,
Dharma and we have the ability and potential to transcend
it and live our lives to its fullest. Our festivals
Festivals are part of such a grand design enabling us
to improve ourselves qualitatively. We are
blessed to have been born into this culture
that bedrock such a nexus of festivals, that
literally, every single day can be a celebration
for us.
Have you ever given a Our festivals are in fact a colourful
deliberation on what expression of our vibrant culture. They
the purposes of our fall in different categories: seasonal
cultural festivals are? related festivals like Vishu, Pongal etc.,
spiritually significant ones like
Mahasivaratri, Vinayaka Chathurthi etc,
celebration of birth days of National
heroes like Sri Rama Navami, Sri Krishna
janmashtami etc, and various others
related to fun, frolic, art, music, history,
myths, legends and so on. This is an
attempt to navigate through the holistic
significance of our festivals.
 • We always prefer to stay in an uninterrupted connection to our
friends and colleagues through many social media platforms. Most
of us turn frustrated if we happen to stay at a place where the
internet connection is terrible. We end up cursing the place, the
internet provider and even ourselves for not being able to stay
1. STAYING connected. But our culture teaches us that we don't need to
depend on an external internet to be contended. We can stay
CONNECTED TO connected to the divine through our innernet.

THE DIVINITY • It tells us that Iswara is not an entity sitting beyond skies but is
the consciousness pervading in each and every existence on
cosmos. That is the reason when the Asura king Hiranyakashipu
raged in anger and shouted at his own little son enquiring "Where
is your God, Vishnu", Prahlada did not had the slightest of doubt
to answer that "He is present in each and everything". We know
the story that the irritated king breaks down a pillar, only to
witness Bhagvan being manifested in the form of Narasimha
hopping out in a fierce form, to end him.
Our festivals are in fact an Innernet service
provider, to keep us constantly connected to the
divine. For instance, during the nine days and
nights of Navaratri, one observes fasts, pray to
different forms of Devi, especially Lakshmi, Durga
and Saraswathi Devi and seeks prosperity,
knowledge and spiritual upliftment. We have the
grand celebration during Vianayaka chaturthi
days when the elephant headed Deva Ganesha is
invoked and his big idols are made which are
immersed in seas at the end of celebrations,
accompanied with bhajans etc. The birth days of
avatars like Sri Rama are celebrated, when
devotees contemplate on Rama and his qualities,
Janmashtami of Bhagvan Krishna, when the whole
of India rejoices. In South India, little kids dress up
like Sri Krishna and Radha and participate in
colourful processions on Ashtami day.
On Guru Purnima day, every disciple
contemplates on the highest principle that is
Guru. On Maha Sivaratri, when a whole night
is dedicated for prayers to lord Siva. Many
more to mention like the colourful Holi,
lightful Diwali, Karva Chauth, Karthika
deepam, Naga panjami, temple festivals,
special days like Ekadasi etc. If we really
venture to make a list, then literally all around
an year, we will have festivals. Through all
these festivals, one gets an opportunity to
always contemplate on that Divine, which is
not separate from his own self.
2. STAYING CONNECTED TO THE NATURE

Our traditions consider human beings as an

extension of Nature, and so have we
evolved many cultural practices that
establish this link with mother Nature.
Worshipping plants, trees, animals, birds,
mountains, rivers and every natural
phenomenon by intelligently linking them to
humanity through stories and thus
perceiving the divinity in them is a very
significant characteristic of our culture.
Amma used to say about the daily
practices of the fishermen community
of this small village. Nobody would
spit or urinate or in any way
contaminate the backwaters here,
because every child growing here is
taught that rivers are forms of Gods
and have to be treated with love and
respect. Even when people require
tree leaves for using them as eco-
spoon in order to drink the rice soup
which is the staple diet amongst
villagers, they would only pluck the
exact number of leaves they need and
no more since everybody considered
trees and plants as living entities.
 Sea was considered as mother
Goddess. Sun is considered as Surya
Deva and it was a "must" that all
cleaning household chores have to be
completed before sunrise because
displaying the cleaning tools at Sun
God was inauspicious. By this way of a
worshipful attitude towards Nature,
they in fact developed a lifestyle that
does not challenge it, rather love and
adore it and these practices always
inadvertently led to conservation of
Nature.
If not all, many of our festivals are expressions to
acknowledge and revere our connection to
mother Nature. These festivals may be seasonal
in nature. Harvest festivals are those that occur
at the time of the main harvest of a particular
region. Each of the 29 states of India celebrates
its harvest festival at different times throughout
the year, owing to the diversity in climate and
difference in the staple crop of a region. Bihu,
Pongal, Makara Sankranti, Lohri - the names
and regions differ, but the significance of each is
just one - to be thankful to Nature for the
bountiful harvest. The first yield of the new crop
is a cheerful time and is a time for the
celebration of the food grown.
The Sankranti festivities are marked in
different ways across north India such as
through kite flying in Gujarat and parts of
Rajasthan; Pongal in south India; a four-day
long cultural harvest festival in India primarily
celebrated in Tamil Nadu. Lohri is mainly
celebrated in Punjab and other parts of North
India and the festival involves lighting a holy
bonfire, feeding it, offering prayers, dance
performances. The fire signifies passing of
winters, the long nights and welcomes
summer, the longer days. Marking the
beginning of the agricultural season, Bihu
brings the people of Assam together,
irrespective of caste, religion, creed, gender
or race who rest their faith on their supreme
Iswara, Brai Shibrai, locally known as Father
Shibrai.
By actively participating in such
festivals, one gains the wisdom
that re-establishes the
deteriorating Human-Nature
connection. Apart from the
spiritual significance of realizing
one-self in everything, these
festivals also serve towards
environmental conservation.
3. STAYING CONNECTED TO
FELLOW BEINGS
Interacting with fellow beings and
celebrating through that coordination is
another most important attribute of our
festivals. Forgetting all differences and
working together breaks the bond
between minds and gives an expansive
joyful experience. We all would have
experienced it, but one particularly
noteworthy celebration to cite is Ratha
Yatra festival at Puri.
During the grand and unique celebration at
the festival time, a group of servitors called
mutura pakhala, provides mutura twigs to
the deities Sri Krishna, Balabadra and
Subhadra for brushing their teeth every
morning. Another group called darpania
provide and hold the mirrors to these deities
while they dress up. Khuntias, are guards for
the deities. The paniki pata prepare the
vegetables. The rosa nikap prepares the ghee
and ginger. The chaula bachha clean the rice.
Every group of servitors are known as a
nijoga comprising almost all Jati's and
covering almost all aspects of skill. Presently
there are now about 250 such nijogas.
• In Kerala also we can find such a
concoction of people from various strata
of society, joining together to coordinate
a big festival. The famous Thrissur
pooram, Chettikulangara Bharani etc
are some brilliant examples.

• Through our festivals, we celebrate

together and establish a brotherhood
with co-existing communities which in
one way expand our limited self by
accommodating others.
4. STAYING CONNECTED TO THE CULTURE
There is a recent trending argument that India as a
Nation was the by product of the British rule. This
is a shot in the dark and it lacks any solid
substance. If considered politically, it was
Chandragupta Maurya under the visionary
guidance of Chanakya, who brought the whole of
India (Even much bigger than the geographical
India we are now) under a single rule. Speaking
culturally, there was never a time when India was
not united! Ample proofs can be presented from
our ancient scriptures, cultural practices etc.
Having said that we share a space under the
common cultural umbrella, the festivals play an
instrumental role in linking one's life to our culture
through stories which could be history, myths and
legends.
Each of our festivals will have a Legend at its
background.

For example, the famous festival of colours Holi

represents the victory of Good over Evil. The
asura king Hiranyakasipu plotted with his sister
Holika, to kill his son Prahlada since his son
became an ardent devotee of Lord Vishnu.
Holika, who was immune to fire, tricked
Prahlada to sit in a pyre with her.

When the pyre was lit, the boy’s devotion to

Lord Vishnu helped him walk away unscathed
while Holika, from whom the festival derives its
name, was burned to death despite her
immunity. It is believed that from the name of
Holika, emerged the festival Holi.
Another famous festival Diwali or the
celebration of lights attribute its origin
primarily to two different stories, though the
encapsulated message is one and the same:
Victory of light over darkness or good or evil.

According to one tradition, it was the day

when Lord Rama along with Sita devi and
Lakshmana returned to Ayodhya after killing
Ravana while the people received him with lit
lamps. Another tradition owes this festival to
the killing of Narakasura by Lord Sri Krishna.
Conclusion
Ours is a culture that cheers us to celebrate our Life moment by moment
and day by day. Each of our festivals play an important role in shaping our
views. However, a vast majority of us are cut adrift from a deeper
understanding and mindful observance of these joyful celebratory
moments. Many unfortunate reasons can be listed that has led us to such
a pitiful state. The cultural trajectory of our Nation stooped down
principally due to the numerous invasions that we faced over a millennia.
The cultural interactions that so happened with other foreign cultures,
mindless westernization, vested interests groups trying to subdue our
culture by branding every ancient practice of ours as horrendous in nature
etc, could be other reasons as well. In fact, intense research should be
done to discern and bring out these aforementioned factors in order so
that we don't fall back into the same pit twice because of not learning our
lessons from history. All the more, we should rekindle the cultural spirit of
our youngsters and reconnect them back to our age-old traditions. Lest,
rather than becoming the torch bearers of the most ancient legacy, they
shall remain a silent witness to its stagnant demise.
Nowadays without giving much thought to the ways in which our festivals connect us to the
Divine, to the Nature, to our Fellow beings and to our Culture, we mechanically follow the
peripheral customs.
We throw colours and merry-make on Holi, but have no idea why Holi is celebrated? We light
lamps at our doorsteps on Diwali, not knowing why? We celebrate Onam opulently, but have
forgotten the significance of Vamana Murthi and Mahabali! If we aspire to retain our culture, it is
high time we teach the breadth and depth of our festivals to future generations and inspire
them to celebrate it wholeheartedly.
NAMAH SHIVAYA